Peter Madoff Gets 10 Years for Role in Brother's Fraud

The brother of convicted swindler Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 10 years in jail Thursday for actions prosecutors said helped shield the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, writes The New York Times.

Peter B. Madoff pleaded guilty in June to falsifying documents, lying to securities regulators, filing phony tax returns, and other acts that prevented earlier detection of the fraud. The 67-year-old attorney was not accused of knowingly abetting Bernard Madoff's scam, which he says he learned about only days before his brother's arrest.

Numerous charities were victims of the New York financier, who is serving a 150-year prison term. Stressing the harm done by Peter Madoff's failure to carry out his legal duties, prosecutors cited a letter from Marion Wiesel, the wife of the Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel, whose foundation lost $15.2 million in the fraud.